Category Archives: Movies

Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

Posted by on October 17, 2011 1 comment | 3,379 views

Time for another movie review. Been a while since I did that last time. This time it’s not a new movie, but one I just discovered existed. The movie is from 2009 and is a Sci-Fi Comedy. I usually don’t find comedies very funny. Don’t know, maybe Hollywood potty or drunken humour isn’t quite my thing. This one is different though. Firstly, and probably most significantly, it is British. Most of the best comedies are, with very few exceptions.

FAQ About Time TravelFrequently Asked Questions About Time Travel is about three nerdy friends in a pub. The one guy played by Chris O’Dowd (from IT Crowd) is obsessed by time travel, and tells a story about a girl he just met who claimed to be a time agent. It’s all a bit silly really, and the guys don’t quite believe him. He doesn’t really believe the story himself it turns out. Then one of the guys needs to take a leak. When he comes back from the toilet, he has been sent forward in time. There is a time-rift in the men’s room! The story quickly gets confusing with several versions of themselves in the same pub trying to avoid running into each other. Some classic time-travel elements like a post-apocalyptic version of the city in snow-clad rubble is added to the mix, as well as evil time villains. It is all delightfully absurd, and there is just enough confusion for it to not be annoying.

Well worth watching if you’re looking for a laid back British comedy film.

XBMC 10.0 (Dharma)

Posted by on January 10, 2011 Comments Off | 2,899 views

Finally, just before Xmas, XBMC released version 10.0 of this excellent open source media centre software, codenamed “Dharma”. I have finally gotten around to upgrade it on my media centre box. Some of the main new features I have been looking forward to is the option to use a MySQL server for the database instead of a local SQLite database. Now I can update content from my PC and have it accessible on my media centre box. I also have a database I can integrate into my media manager website which I have been working on for a while. All this is probably not what most people are after, but there are much more. The addon system have been significantly improved, the software now properly remembers files you have watched even if they’re not in the library and many more minor improvements and bug fixes. Still, XBMC is much as we’re used to, and why not? It’s an excellent piece of software!

I run XBMC on a custom built PC in a ChiefTec media centre box, all of which I wrote about in an earlier post. Such a box can be built fairly cheaply, it doesn’t require much hardware, I have pretty much just picked cheap items. Computers these days are made for computer games, playing video is piss easy, even HD. All my media is stored on a server in another room, but there isn’t necessarily a need for that since the ChiefTec box has room for 3 hard drives. Anyway, the system runs on Ubuntu Linux 10.04, which is also free and incredibly easy to set up. The box i use also come with a iMON remote control, which was a bit tricky to set up in Linux, but is fairly easy to configure in XBMC when that’s done. I have finally a setup that I am very happy with :)

Here’s a few screenshots (I use the skin Transparency! instead of the default skin):

Screenshot 1 - XBMC Media CenterScreenshot 2 - XBMC Media CenterScreenshot 3 - XBMC Media Center

 

Update 16.03.2011: Comments have been disabled, because this post receives an immense amount of spam.

Avatar

Posted by on January 26, 2010 No comments | 2,300 views

Avatar Movie PosterFinally got around to see it. It has been out for a while, and you still need to prebook seats to get a good spot. Anyway, saw it in 3D, and the glasses worked really well. I knew not to try and focus on stuff that weren’t supposed to be in focus. That’s what hurts the eyes. The 3D became very realistic at times, I almost waved the dust away when the big tree fell!

The story was good, though maybe not original. However I don’t necessarily mind that. Many stories are good for a reason. Good character development, but very predictable. Very textbook I think. All that aside, what really sells the movie is the amazing beautiful planet and very creative plant and animal life they created with their CGI. Great attention to detail. Now that is a very important point. The animated details are amazing. Also all that treehugger-mumbojumbo was framed in a plausible setup that didn’t make my sciency side cringe.

The movie has a definite wow-factor to it, very similar to what I felt when I saw Jurassic Park the first time at the cinemas (was the most expensive CGI movie of its time back 17 years ago).

This movie may very well deserve a place on my best movies list, and definitely the best one of 2009 (and I’ve seen a lot of movies in 2009). I think it beats Inglorious Basterds and Public Enemies, though they don’t really compare as they’re in a different class.

This is a definite must see, and it must be seen in cinemas. I’ll be getting the BluRay when it comes out. 1080p is the only way to go for this one!

District 9

Posted by on September 15, 2009 No comments | 1,403 views

District 9Hmm, where to start … Now this is one odd movie. It is sort off a story about racism and segregation/apartheid, and is actually set in South Africa. The suffering part here are aliens. They arrive in a spacecraft, and for some reason unknown, or maybe not picked up by me, they cannot take care of themselves and are put into a refugee camp. Conflict soon arise and effort is made to keep the alien population apart from humans. At the same time some of the aliens are making an attempt to regain their vessel in an attempt to leave earth. Conflict arise when the government wants to move the refugee camp further away from human population. The movie mostly revolves around following the government official put to the task of removing the inhabitants of the camp. The style of the movie is documentary, a twist on the “Cloverfield” feel to it. It all makes for a very different movie experience, which of course is a bonus.

My rating: 8/10

Public Enemies

Posted by on August 24, 2009 No comments | 1,272 views

Well, just saw this one at the movies…

Public EnemiesThe film is depicting the last days of John Dillinger, a bank robber in the 1930s. I don’t know much about the real guy, but I suspect the movie is very loosely based on the real story. It is a long movie, two and a half hour, and I did get a bit bored at times. Those hugely exaggerated gunfight scenes which is common in many gangster movies, is still entertaining though, and you gotta love the cars. The story is decent, but it does get a bit difficult to follow who died and who did not at times. The story has no surprises and is thus rather predictable. Yet it has its moments. Johnny Depp, who incidentally isn’t one of my favourite actors, does as usual do an excellent job at acting the main character.

6.5/10 for the movie
8/10 for Johnny Depp

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1152836